Sterilization process
Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus. Photo: egypt-museum.com/edwin-smith-medical-papyrus
The Edwin Smith papyrus is one of the oldest recordings of medical techniques. Dated to 1600 BCE, this papyrus has information on how ancient Egyptians of this time would conduct medical care of a wound. It describes how a wound would be treated with sutures, a covering of flax linen, and honey for its healing and antibacterial properties (James 10). This shows that even in ancient times, humans were concerned with the concept of reducing contaminates in wounds. Which means that sterilization was most likely always directly tied with wound care. For western civilization the beginning of sterilization being integrated into medical practice began in the 19th century.
The person who spearheaded the concept’s integration is debated as a few different doctors and surgeons had similar findings and results at the time. The surgeon accredited with the ‘germ theory’ is Lord Joseph Lister (1827 – 1912), whom is considered “the Father of Modern Surgery” (Harmer 245). After his discovery it led to other discoveries of how to sterilize materials with chemicals or steam. These other discoveries changed how medicine viewed aseptic techniques and resulted in the larger adoption of sterilizing equipment and wounds. We can see this when the steam sterilizer is invented. One of the first steam sterilizers is the ‘Arnold Steam Sterilizer’ by the Wilmot, Castle & Co. first introduced in the Medical and surgical reporter from June 1890 (Medical Reporter 355). Steam sterilizers become an essential part of medical equipment not long after this.
Arnold Steam Sterilizer. 1888-1903. Photo: American History Museum, Smithsonian Archive.
The VGH got their first sterilizer in 1904. The integration of this equipment meant that the sterilizing process had to be conducted by medical staff on top of their already existing tasks. Which means these tasks fell to the nurses. A system was devised to make sterilizing a routine practice. Night shift nurses were tasked with collecting the soiled bandages, washing them, and then folding and organizing them into packages according to size (Stephens 2026).
Once packaged they would be kept together with a brown tape that had been marked with colour changing ink. This ink would change to blue or black when the autoclave reached the proper heat temperature. This indicated to the nurses if the load in the autoclave had been properly sterilized (Stephens). Once sterile the bandages and equipment would be carefully put into a store room in preparation for when it will be needed. This practice of nightly sterilizing and organizing had been mostly phased out by the 1970s, as the labour requirement grew too much.
Examples of autoclaves/ steam sterilizers. All photos collected from Underwood, W. “Textbook of Sterilization.” The Lakeside Press (1942): 40-150